Has anyone else seen their Adwords bid strategies changed without their authorization?

[JCL Marketing]

I manage a couple of dozen AdWords accounts and I've had the bid strategies changed without my authorization. In each case it's been changed from a manual cpc strategy to a target cpa strategy in multiple campaigns, across multiple accounts, and more than once. I'm the only one with access and I'm certain I didn't make the changes. Google support tells me the changes came from the email address associated with my account? Has anyone else had this happen?

 

[Phil Rozek]

@JCL Marketing, did you check the "change history" log? Like to confirm for a fact that an errant click of the mouse didn't approve one of Google's (unhelpful) suggestions?

Also, I assume you have never given one of Google's less-than-knowledgeable "account managers" the green light to make any of the changes they often recommend (all of which are some version on "spend more").

Yeah, the target CPA strategy never works. "Maximize clicks" is the only AI bidding strategy that ever works well. The rest of the time, like you, I go with good old manual CPC.

 

[JCL Marketing]

Thanks for the reply Phil. I’m a big fan of your posts and work.

I have gone through the change history and the changes are in there saying they were done by me but it would’ve taken a lot of errant key strikes while I was playing basketball for this last round of changes to be true.

I do feel like it’s assigned managers making unauthorized changes because they can’t get a hold of anyone. I would never give them the authority to make changes on their own.

What to do what to do. I’ll just have to keep a closer eye on everything. I was just hoping to find someone who has had a similar experience. Thanks again for the thoughtful reply.

 

[Phil Rozek]

Hey, thanks for saying so, @JCL Marketing.

Given what you say, it must be one of Google's account manglers. Not only do they "help" when they think you've signed off on it, but also their changes don't show up in the change history. It can get real ugly real fast.

After changing the bid strategies back to manual and popping into the change history every time you do a tune-up (at least for a while), all I'd do is make sure nobody at Google touches anything ever.

 

[JCL Marketing]

Agreed!